Season 35 (Doctor Who)
Overview Another New Era Season 35 was considered as a new era for the show; the newest since 1990. Very few elements remained from the last season, the main one being Paul McGann returning for his third season as The Doctor. Assistant Floor Manager, Chris Sanderman took over the producer’s chair; the third in a row after Stephen Garwood, his predecessor, and John-Nathan Turner. Steven Moffat replaced Ben Aaronovitch as script editor, who was seen to be in a more important role due to the positive reception towards his stories in the past three seasons, specifically Season 33's Blink. The plans... Despite the growing success of the show again and especially in America, Sanderman wanted to take the show in another new direction as he felt it became a slightly low-class programme, which had a stigma of being a cheesy, British sci-fi show. Larger changes took place both in front and behind the camera. The first was the update in camera production; using the new single camera shooting method permanently, which had only been used for location filming. This marked the beginning of the end of the multi-camera use which had been used for many television programmes for decades. The switch to widescreen A more notable change came with the launch of digital television set to debut in October 1998. To give the show a digital feel, Sanderman also decided to ditch the old videotape and film technique in favour of it being recorded fully digital. This was also helped with the change in aspect ratio from 4:3 to 16:9, making Doctor Who one of the first things filmed in that ratio; one of the first being the BBC One balloon idents, that although debuted on 4th October 1997 (the same day Season 34 did as well) but wouldn’t be seen that way until a year later. Swapping the Voyager for the TARDIS Elsewhere, this season also saw a new companion to the show: Sammy Thompson, played by former Star Trek: Voyager actress Jennifer Lien. She would be the second American actress to play a companion after Daphne Ashbrook. This was especially helped with the fact that the BBC pushed for the show to reach a more mainstream American audience, and the recent deal with Paramount Television to own half of the show, which made her fit in well. Unlike her Voyager character Kess, Sammy would be more “hands on”. New title sequence To go with the new aspect ratio and feel, a new title sequence was commissioned. Although Sanderman liked the former titles, he and many fans agreed that it simply didn’t have a traditional Doctor Who feel to it, with the use of names, creator credits, longer length and slower paced theme tune. For him, it was too slow and didn’t have a “Let’s go on an adventure with the Doctor!” feel. Retaining Dominic Glynn's second arrangement of the theme tune, it instead started from the last few bars of the slower part before going into the main section which was used only in the end credits; accompanied with the visuals of an asteroid in space heading towards Earth. As the main theme kicked in, the logo appears, followed by a brief glimpse of the TARDIS transitioning it from the logo to the names. McGann’s face then zooms in, preceded by the creator credits, the story title and writer and the part number. All of this happens whilst accompanied by blue and grey space clouds background which flashes and disappears at the end. A logo flying with wings The new logo was very different to that of all the previous ones, but it was designed to make use of it on screen, to fill out the new aspect ratio but remain 4:3 safe. Some compared it to that of the movie ‘Top Gun’ and with the 1987 McCoy logo due to the negative reactions. It could've been too much Sanderman also initially wanted to have the show air from October like last season, so that digital viewers get to see the season in full in 16:9 mode and to avoid the complaints about the 14:9 use from March that year for standard TV sets. However, the BBC realized that if it aired then, the following season would air almost immediately and feared that fans would end up getting “too much Doctor Who for over a year non-stop”. As a result, it was pushed forward to August to allow a brief break in-between seasons. Stories Stories that featured in this season included the likes of Jamie McCrimmon returning, Romana’s death, questioning mankind, the Cybermen, a crossover with Star Trek, a blame for war, an open world from a wallpaper and an imposter of the Doctor. The recurring use of Gallifrey was to hearken back to that of UNIT in the 1970s. Cast Regular * The Doctor - Paul McGann * Sammy Thompson - Jennifer Lien Recurring * Jamie McCrimmon - Frazer Hines * The Great Intelligence - Ian McKellen * Romana - Lalla Ward * Leela - Louise Jameson * Voice of K-9 - John Leeson * Brigadier Winifred Bambera - Angela Bruce * Lady Flavia - Makla Ghansa * The Other - Paul McGann Guest * Mrs Rumford - * Duncon - * Fiona - * Morag - * Geng Seignh - * Lord Crantrope - * Rainwest - * Dr Ahkmed - * Prime Minister - Patrick Stewart * Kate Lethbridge-Stewart - * Sarah - * King Doomwraith - * Prince Doomwraith - * President of America - * President of Russia - * Ruby Duvall - * General Pamela Cutler - * Cyber-Controller - David Banks * Cybermen Performers - * Joe Adler - * Jude Black - * Gary Venning - * Bono Brooks - * Whitehead - * Ben - * Dave Hilliard - * Diana Milton - * Leslie Laughland - * Michael Brack - * Nike Palmer - * Philip Duvall - * Lord Stanley Straker - * Captain Trench - * Capt. Samuel Battes - Mark Hamill * Cmdr. Harry Madison - Hugh Laurie * Lt. Cmdr. Katherine Armetts - Sophia Myles * Lt. Cmdr. Davitch Steinberg - Peter Czajkowski * Ensign Annabell Thomas - Sarah Michelle Gellar * Voice of the Jakkoyd - Warwick Davis * Voice of the Computer - Elisabeth Sladen * Sarr - * Tharr - * Majel - * Victoria - * Ambassador Twyne - * Remanian - * The Historian - * Tyann Leader - * Tyanns - * Voice of The Daleks - Nicholas Briggs * Dalek Operators - Television Stories Home Media VHS *The Castle that Time Forgot (1998) *Killers of the Dark (1998) *Doomwraiths (1998) *Iceberg (1998) *A Case for the Blue Box (1999) *Attack of the Mind (1999) *Wallpaper (1999) *The Man with the Hollow Head (1999) DVD *This season released as the Complete Season 35 Box Set in July 2003. *The season, along with all other Ninth Doctor stories was included in the Complete Paul McGann Era Box Set. Category:Doctor Who seasons